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The current drive towards sustainability are putting pressure on organizations worldwide to implement procedures to manage the elements of sustainability for an organisation that include emissions, effluent discharge, waste disposal and energy efficiency. Even though these green elements can be managed, monitored and analysed in an integrated manner using some common resources and information, they are typically handled piecemeal under different types of management standards; and quite often, as ad-hoc projects as opposed to programs. This paper reviews the current management systems that relate to sustainability, and proposes the development an integrated green management framework called the Sustainable Green Management System (SGMS). A systematic, integrated and efficient approach for collecting, monitoring, analysing and managing information and resources via the SGMS will not only lead to organisational sustainability, but also have the potential to save ample resources, remove significant redundancies, promote cleaner production and enhance the profitability and efficiency of an organisation. An application of the proposed SGMS framework is demonstrated on a facility management case study that uses a unified GI as an indicator for an organizational sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, industrial enterprises are facing up to new challenges to well optimize their performances, with regards not only to conventional performances (e.g. reliability or productivity) but also to emerging ones as those related to sustainability issues. Indeed, sustainability indicators have to be considered now in the decision-making process of the plant to better control and maintain it to be consistent with Green Production requirements. In that way, indicators such as Energy Efficiency or Energy Consumption are promoted for the impact they have on these requirements in a Life Cycle Cost vision. Thus the core idea defended in this paper is addressing the necessary evolution of conventional maintenance decision-making process in industry for considering the energy efficiency indicator. To support the idea, the first objective is to define the concept of energy efficiency indicator which materializes the energy efficiency performance at a specific time. The definition is done for different abstraction levels such as component, function, system which are subjected to time-dependent degradation behaviors. So, the energy efficiency indicator concept is expressed as the amount of energy consumed per unit of useful output, which has to be seen as a sustainable performance measure of industrial system. Then a mathematical formulation is proposed to calculate energy efficiency indicator at any time of the performance by considering dependent factors (static and dynamic ones) impacting inputs and outputs of the system. The second objective is to propose a new concept named REEL (Remaining energy-efficient lifetime) for tracking the energy efficiency performance evolution. The REEL is defined by the time left before the system loses its energy efficiency property considered as a specific EEI value (EEI threshold) not to be exceeded. This specific value is technically and/or economically fixed in advance, given the current condition, past and future operation profiles. The REEL could be used as an appropriate indicator for maintenance decision-making process in a proactive vision. The third objective is to formalize a generic approach in the way assess the REEL value. The assessment requires to forecast the evolution of energy efficiency indicator (whatever the abstraction level is) by taking into account the static and dynamic factors. Finally, the feasibility and added value of our proposals are illustrated on a manufacturing platform named TELMA (TELeMAintenance). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strengthening the implementation of environmental regulation is one of the key measures to prevent further energy depletion and environmental deterioration. This paper focuses on complicated relation between environmental regulation and fossil energy consumption. We theoretically identified the direct and indirect paths of environmental regulation that affect fossil energy consumption and analyzed the relationship between the two. To identify the indirect impact of environmental regulation on fossil energy consumption, we incorporated three types of technology (e.g., production technology, pollution abatement technology, and backstop technology) into our model. On the theoretical basis, we then evaluated the impact of environmental regulation on fossil energy consumption in China by applying both non-spatial models and spatial econometric models. In the direct path, energy-saving effect of environmental regulation in China is dynamic and yields complex results from the “Green Paradox” and “compliance cost”. As for indirect effects, we find that current environmental regulations have promoted technological progress in production to induce energy savings but failed to drive technological advancements in pollution abatement and backstop to guarantee a sustainable energy development. Based on the findings, some corresponding policy implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimizing energy consumption has become a priority in advanced manufacturing industry due to increasing sustainability and environmental consciousness, resulting in various models to characterize the relationship between cutting parameters and energy consumption for material removal processes. These existing models are subject to a principle, the higher the material removal rate, the lower the specific energy consumption, without considering the effects of cutting parameter combinations at a certain material removal rate. To address this problem in minimizing energy consumption, three tasks are conducted in this paper. First, specific energy consumption is identified as an optimization objective and expressed as a function of spindle rotation speed, cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. Second, based on the candidate options, decision rules are proposed for selecting optimal cutting parameters to achieve minimum energy consumption. Third, the decision rules are applied with experimental data of rough external turning. This work is expected to assist computer numerical control machine tool practitioners in selecting optimal cutting parameters for minimum energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental Sustainability is one of the ‘Grand Challenges’ for manufacturing success in the 21st century. The present article mainly focuses on energy use during the manufacturing steps used for assembling products. In particular, industry still needs systematic and reliable ways to capture information for ultimately accounting for energy efficiency in manufacturing processes. For that purpose, an information model in the form of a formal ontology was created using information elements as building blocks, which emerge from manufacturing process models, supply chain operations, manufacturing process parameters, 3D form features and exergy-based thermodynamic analysis. These information elements were integrated by means of semantic relationships in an ontology. Once this information model was constructed, an application example of a welded hull panel assembly was used for verification of the model's representativeness and completeness. Results show that it is feasible to correlate all required data by means of semantic relationships for estimating energy efficiency indicators prior to physical prototyping, or ultimately comparing different alternatives for manufacturing processes regarding energy efficiency. However, manufacturing processes must be described in detail in order to allow energy efficiency analyses. In addition, geometric models need to be able to represent form features that can best relate to specific manufacturing process parameters. And finally, energy efficiency indicators, such as the degree-of-perfection can be derived from a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis, to be performed in each individual process step. Results indicate it is possible to provide an information structure for the calculation of the degree-of- perfection associated with an exergy-based thermodynamic analysis in assembly processes. Therefore, it has the potential to serve as a basis for a unifying framework for developing software applications that could allow the calculation of the degree of perfection in manufacturing operations. In addition, the resulting information model may facilitate data integration in the extended enterprise environment as well as the development of standards that can lead to seamless interoperability of manufacturing information systems. This paper presents the means by which energy efficiency can be accessed directly from an integrated semantic model, and opens the possibility to be extended for many different sorts of manufacturing processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the energy shortage and environmental pollution, the development and utilization of biomass energy has aroused increasing attention all over the world. The crop straw cogeneration (CSC) of heat and power is an efficient renewable energy utilization technology in rural area, which is a practical solution to energy saving and pollution control. Circular economy, characterized by resource conservation, recycling and environment harmony, greatly enriches the connotation of energy projects, which is of guidance implications for the development of CSC. In this paper, the CSC project site selection is conducted under the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework from the perspective of circular economy. A complete criteria system considering the sustainability indicators is established to reflect the characteristics of CSC projects for the first time. Furthermore, due to the complexity and the lack of ready-made experience in the CSC site selection, the intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) are improved and applied by creating a novel IFSs distance formula to provide clear expression for the hesitation degrees of the experts. Finally, taking Changchun City, Jilin Province as an example, the improved TOmada de Decisao Interativa Multicriterio (TODIM) method is applied to obtain the optimal location. A 2 (Nongan) is the best choice among the four given alternatives, and comparative analysis shows that the improved TODIM method is better than the other methods. This study improves the application of intuitionistic fuzzy sets in site selection of energy projects and brings new insight for the decision-making from the perspective from circular economy. [Display omitted] • A criteria system is established from the circular economy perspective. • A new formula based on membership, non-membership and hesitation is defined. • A site selection framework is proposed based on the improved TODIM method. • Economic factors and social needs are dominant for CSC site selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased competition and reduced profit margins are pushing manufacturing plants to find ways to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. At the same time, government incentives and community initiatives are encouraging the industrial sector to pursue sustainability in operation and energy consumption. This has introduced a paradigm shift where the focus of plant operation is moving from solely cost reduction to one that considers asset management, emission control, and utilization of alternative energy resources. Mathematically speaking, the problem is changing from a single objective optimization to one with multiple objective functions that may at times be contradictory. The focus of this paper is to propose a methodology for management of an industrial plant considering the above factors. It is assumed that the plant is equipped with distributed generation (DG), and can also participate in demand response (DR). Further, the effect of ambient temperature on the lifetime and available capacity of assets such as the plant transformer has been taken into account and incorporated into their daily schedule. The objective is then to find an optimal solution for operating various workstations in such a way that it minimizes the operational costs, the emissions produced, and the loss of life of assets exposed to excess temperatures. A multi-objective optimization problem is therefore formulated through extended lexicographic goal programming, which is further modified to ensure Pareto optimality. A case study has also been presented for a manufacturing plant for luxury vehicle cockpit assembly line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geotextiles have become a popular solution in environmental engineering. They may be manufactured from synthetic or biodegradable materials. The main functions of geotextiles are: separation, filtration, drainage, sealing, anti-erosion protection, and improving plant vegetation conditions. The synthetic ones are produced mainly from fossil fuels. One of the ways to reduce the consumption of energy from non-renewable sources and to limit environmental pollution is to replace petrochemical materials with natural products. Unfortunately, only 2% of the geosynthetics are produced from renewable resources. However, it is estimated that natural fibers and biopolymers might successfully replace synthetic materials even in 50% of all applications. A wide range of geotextiles produced from such natural fibers as jute, flax, coconut fiber, palm fiber, sisal, nettle, straw, cotton, and wool are currently available on the market but they are not widely used in environmental engineering. The paper presents the current state of knowledge and technological developments in their production and application. The study also points to the existing deficiencies and opportunities in the development of the manufacturing technology of natural fibers and biodegradable polymers. Image 1 • The demand for commonly applied geotextiles is soaring. Unfortunately, only 2% is produced from renewable resources. • Natural fibers and biopolymers might successfully replace synthetic materials even in 50% of all applications. • The paper presents the current state of knowledge and technological developments in the production and application of natural fibers (flax, jute, hemp, coconut, cotton, wool) and biodegradable polymers (PLA, PHA, PCL, PHB, PBS, CA). • Polylactide (PLA) is currently one of the cheapest biopolymers that is most commonly recommended for engineering solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower is considered as one of the most convenient and popular renewable energy technologies and its capacity is growing rapidly throughout the world. Its rapid deployment also comes up with various environmental issues which cannot be neglected at a glance. Previous studies had imposed questions about its sustainable nature and now it becomes important to think about the sustainability of hydropower projects so that the technology would grow effectively in future. This paper reviews the status of research on environmental assessment of hydropower projects. The factors which affect the environmental impacts associated with hydropower generation are also explored. It is found that environmental impact assessment of hydropower projects must be performed considering all aspects and factors which affects the environmental impacts associated with hydropower projects. Most of the previous studies are focused on the estimation of GHG emissions so it is necessary to give emphasis on other environmental impacts like acidification, land use, energy consumption etc. and also consider biomass decomposition in submerged land. In fact it is not worthy to predict the sustainability of hydropower projects without considering almost all biophysical impacts associated with them. The paper also compares large and small hydro considering all sustainability assessment factors. Small hydropower projects are considered as a good alternative to control the problems associated with large hydropower projects but still many studies found that so many issues are associated with small hydro as well which cannot be neglected completely. Image 1 • Factors that influence the environmental impacts of a hydropower plant are summarized. • Current status of research related to sustainability assessment of hydropower projects is discussed. • Comparison among Large and Small Hydropower in respect of sustainability is provided. • Improvements required in the future research in order to obtain more realistic and useful results are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of Sustainable Development Goal 7 is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Increased energy efficiency is particularly important in the construction industry because urban agglomerations currently consume up to 80% of global energy, 40% of which is attributable to buildings. In countries like Italy however, where historical buildings constitute a significant part of the building patrimony, improving energy efficiency is not always straightforward as interventions must take into account the historical materials used as well as the context of the construction. Therefore, the aim of this research was to establish a methodology that would identify the most effective means of achieving energy efficiency taking into account the historical aspects of a building and its cultural context. The methodology proposed and described in this paper involves: preliminary analyses to identify the elements of value and the level of transformability of facades; the selection of different insulating materials; dynamic simulations of building behaviour; analyses of intervention costs in relation to each type of insulation and finally the preparation of a multi-criteria matrix to identify the most effective method of improving energy efficiency of a historical wall with differing degrees of transformability. Each insulating material was analysed in relation to heating and cooling requirements and material cost impact. The methodology was applied to a case study in the Province of L'Aquila, Italy. In the paper a multicriteria framework, for the improvements in the thermal efficiency of a building, it is presented. Specifically the attention is focused on heating requirements, cooling requirements and cost impact. The results indicate that, with respect to historical building, it is possible to adopt strategies finalyzed to improve the energy efficiency of these buidings, contributing in this way, also toward the SDG7. Specifically, the best performance for a wall with a high level of transformability can be obtained using calcium silicate, extruded polystyrene, kenaf and hemp, whilst, in the case of a wall with a low level of transformability, the best materials are calcium silicate, polyurethane and linen fiber. Finally, in the case in which external constraints prevent the application of a thick coat and internally there is limited space, the use of calcium silicate was found to be the best energy efficient measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial manufacturing is the largest end-use sector in terms of both final energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions (more than 30% of the total); its increase is rapidly altering the world climate. The need to mitigate the environmental impacts of manufacturing processes makes energy efficiency a key success factor for sustainable production. Accordingly, the scientific community's interest in energy management has grown considerably, resulting in several literature reviews on energy modelling and production systems analysis, emissions calculation, sustainability tools and benchmarking techniques. However, a comprehensive analysis of methods and tools aimed at improving energy awareness and assessing their effects on energy efficiency is lacking. To address this gap, this paper undertakes a systematic literature review of energy assessment methods and tools. From the 1367 papers retrieved by searching scientific literature databases, 64 scientific articles met the inclusion criteria and were analysed in detail. The study aims to provide scholars with a picture of the current state of scientific research and to identify the scientific works that could help industry practitioners in energy management. Following the ISO 50001 framework, the methods and tools were divided into three main groups (i.e. energy analysis, energy evaluation and energy-saving measures methods) and the specific findings relating to each group were synthesized. Finally, the paper addresses unresolved issues and challenges and makes suggestions for future research directions. • A systematic literature review of energy assessment methods and tools are provided. • Relevant concepts, themes and characteristics has been summarized. • A classification of energy assessment methods and tools has been presented. • The limits and the possible solution strategies to overcome them are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the cutting energy consumption in machining is important to improve the sustainability of cryogenic machining. Currently, the analysis of cutting energy for cryogenic machining mostly relies on equipment testing, while less research has been conducted on energy analysis based on material removal mechanisms. In this paper, the chip formation mechanism of cryogenic machining is studied on the basis of liquid nitrogen orthogonal milling experiments with Ti–6Al–4V alloy, and the corresponding specific cutting energy model is established. First, the effects of cooling conditions and process parameters on chip microscopic morphology were analyzed based on orthogonal milling experiments. Next, a specific cutting energy model was established according to the chip formation mechanism. Finally, the reliability of the model was verified by cutting forces. The results show that in cryogenic machining, when the cutting speed is less than 200 m/min, adiabatic shear dominates the formation of serrated chips, and the cutting energy consumption is higher than that of dry cutting. As the cutting speed exceeds 200 m/min, adiabatic shear and periodic fracture together dominate the formation of serrated chips, and the energy consumption of cutting is significantly reduced at this time. This research provides a reference and guidance for the sustainable development of cryogenic machining. • This research reveals the chip formation mechanism of cryogenic machining of TC4 alloy. • In this study, an energy consumption model for cryogenic machining was established. • Cryogenic machining is an energy saving and environmental protection method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the asymmetric and long-run effect of energy productivity on the quality of the environment in Finland. Finland, as one of the Nordic countries, is a major contributor to the global drive to achieve decarbonization by 2050. In effect, this study seeks to contribute to the strides by querying the extent to which shocks in energy productivity make or mar the sustainability of the Finland environment from 1990:Q1 to 2019:Q4. The other impacts of financial development, economic growth, and trade openness are considered in the model estimated by using the novel hidden panel cointegration and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) methodology. The results reveal a significant asymmetric equilibrium cointegration relationship among the variables over long-run time horizons; energy productivity utilization enhances the quality of the environment in Finland over the long run while trade openness, financial development, and economic growth contribute to environmental degradation in Finland in the long term. In particular, a 1% positive and negative fluctuation in energy productivity lowers carbon emissions by 1.79442% and 0.84799% in the long term. Whereas 1% change in trade openness, financial development, and economic growth trigger CO 2 emissions (CO 2 E) by 1.15298%, 0.271365%, and 2.93402% in Finland's economies. The results of the frequency domain causality model corroborate the NARDL results. On the basis of these empirical findings, this study suggests that policymakers in Finland should consider the asymmetric behavior among these variables in setting their trade, environmental, growth, and energy policies. [Display omitted] • The effect of energy productivity on environmental degradation in Finland is examined. • Nonlinear ARDL, Fourier ADL cointegration and frequnecy domain causality tests are employed. • Energy productivity leads to lower environmental degradation in Finland. • Energy productivity causes environmental sustainability at different frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High energy consumption is one of the main challenges of the chemical industry. The energy footprint of most processes can, however, diminish through the solutions presented in the current paper, leading to cleaner ways of producing chemicals. Ethylene production process is selected as a case study to demonstrate the approach as it is one of the most energy consuming processes in the chemical industry. The study involves an exergetic diagnosis and does not only find the low-exergy-efficient unit operations, but also proposes tools to improve these units based on their key sources of irreversibility. For the ethylene production process, this is conducted by first splitting the flowsheet into four main functional blocks (namely cracking, compression, refrigeration, and separation and purification) according to their exergy losses. This results in identifying the cracking block as the most inefficient block with more than 45% of total exergy losses and thus the first block to be improved so that overall losses reduce (examples of which include increasing the number of furnace tubes while reducing their lengths). Although the compression block is found to have the lowest contribution to internal exergy losses, the inefficient unit operations such as the water cooler (with an exergy loss of 214 kJ/kg) can still be improved through solutions such as system isolation. The refrigeration block is also shown to have the second highest exergy losses with its ethylene and propylene compressors being the main contributors. Solutions are again provided to improve the block performance with specific focus on intercooler design improvement and system isolation. Finally, exergy losses in the purification and separation block are identified to be mainly due to demethanator, deethanator, and ethylene column where modifications in column design might be helpful as concentration and temperature gradients along the towers are the main sources of exergy losses. The approach used in the current study can also be applied to other chemical processes and the findings suggest that even for a well-developed process technology, there is still opportunity for thermodynamically justifiable energy efficiency improvements. Therefore, it is important for process developers to continuously revisit existing processes, in order to ensure lessons learned in one area can be applied to another one. Using a panel of solutions, which has been constructed from a number of previous case studies helps to make this approach more systematic and user-friendly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a systematic framework using Bayesian networks to aggregate the uncertainty from multiple sources for the purpose of uncertainty quantification (UQ) in the prediction of performance of a manufacturing process. Energy consumption, one of the key metrics of manufacturing process sustainability performance, is used to illustrate the proposed methodology. The prediction of energy consumption is not straightforward due to the presence of uncertainty in many process variables and the models used for prediction. The uncertainty is both aleatory (statistical) and epistemic (lack of knowledge); both sources of uncertainty are considered in the proposed UQ methodology. The uncertainty sources occur at different stages of the manufacturing process and do not combine in a straightforward manner, thus a Bayesian network approach is found to be advantageous in uncertainty aggregation. A dimension reduction approach through variance-based global sensitivity analysis is proposed to reduce the number of variables in the system and facilitate scalability in high-dimensional problems. The proposed methodologies for uncertainty quantification and dimension reduction are demonstrated using two examples – an injection molding process and a welding process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource, economic, and environmental impacts are three major factors in the evaluation of industrial processes. All of them might imply certain contributions of ecosystems services. A comprehensive accounting of these factors is critical to sustainability assessment of industrial activities at the ecological scale. Ecological Cumulative Exergy Consumption (ECEC) analysis is a promising approach to address these issues. However, the current knowledge on ECEC is incomplete, especially in economic investment and environmental impact. In this paper, ECEC analysis is extended to quantify purchased resources and pollutant emissions of industrial production. Accordingly, an extended ECEC framework is proposed, integrating the resource, economic, and environmental factors. Furthermore, for better understanding of sustainability, a concept of Ecological Life Cycle Cost (ELCC) is put forward, revealing the relationship between the ECEC and traditional economic evaluation. Finally, a case study of China's raw coal production is used to illustrate the features of these proposed frameworks. The ECEC and ELCC analyses indicate the great ecological influence of raw coal which has been underestimated by the traditional assessment approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important for Chinese cities to advance sustainable energy consumption and ensure that they achieve their carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality. This paper develops a comprehensive assessment of the spatial variability and influencing factors of the quantity of household energy consumption per capita in mega-cities. Based on microlevel household survey data from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China (N = 1082), we analyze the spatial effects and factors of urban residents' energy consumption. A spatial econometric model with four spatial weight matrices is employed, and the nested spatial weight matrix, which holds practical economic and geographical significance, is set. We find that (1) the quantity of energy consumption per capita of all households in Guangzhou is 189.57 kgce/year and shows a spatial difference, with 177.5 kgce/year in the central urban area and 203.47 kgce/year in the outskirts urban area. In particular, households in the outskirts of urban areas present a higher percentage of "high" and "medium-high" energy consumption per capita than those in central urban areas. (2) The quantity of household energy consumption per capita of urban residents is characterized by significant spatial correlation and agglomeration, with "high-high" and "low-low" agglomeration in central urban areas. (3) The household labor force, the housing area and household income are the core factors that drive the quantity of household energy consumption per capita, while the region and educational level are also main factors. We observe the diversity of the energy transition by comparing the patterns of the quantity of household energy consumption per capita within the city. A comprehensive picture of the diversity underlying the energy transition applied across cases can be distilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern long distance ore pipeline systems are subject to strong costs, both from the economic and environmental standpoints. The task of assessing the relative importance of energy and water consumption without a detailed engineering analysis is often not obvious. In the present paper, the relative importance of water and energy unit costs is assessed by a novel dimensionless formulation accounting for the essential hydraulic and cost elements that conform the slurry transport. It is found that, for conditions resembling those of copper and iron concentrate pipelines, the ratio between energy and water costs has a wide range, depending on the particular transport conditions and unit cost scenarios. Although operating at similar volume fractions, results indicate that energy/water cost relations may differ between copper and iron concentrate pipelines and local conditions, thus suggesting the need to explicitly include energy and water cost in the design strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction in the use of raw materials and the spread of energy efficient processes and components are necessary from both the economic and the environmental viewpoints. This paper presents the design of an innovative multi-functional agricultural machinery able to integrate three separate traditional implements used for hay raking, hay baling and bale wrapping, i.e. hay rake, round baler and bale wrapper machines, with the aim of speeding up the harvesting operations and reducing both the energy consumption and the global environmental impact. A comparative analysis about the adoption of the traditional implements and the new multi-functional machinery is reported. Particularly, the reduction in both the fuel consumption (−32%), the human labor (−66.7%) is discussed together with a differential environmental analysis of the proposed system and the traditional implements. To meet such a last purpose, the study adopts the life cycle assessment methodology carefully quantifying the impact indicators for three different categories, i.e. human health, ecosystem quality and resource depletion. The results highlight a global environmental impact reduction of about 35%. The proposed system represents an effective and competitive improvement to ease and speed the haymaking process and to reduce the environmental impact of such a key farmer activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Energy demand reduction is a grand challenge for manufacturing sustainability in order to reduce the escalating cost of energy and to cut down on the carbon footprint of manufacturing processes. The direct electrical energy requirements in manufacturing and machining in particular can be modelled from the basic energy required by the machine tool and the energy for actual material removal (tip energy). However, energy centric modelling of manufacturing processes is in its infancy and related material processing data is limited and of low integrity. It has often been assumed that the specific cutting energy is a constant value for particular workpiece materials. This paper is inspired by the mechanistic force modelling and the size effect phenomenon in machining. The aim of this work was to investigate the specific electrical energy demand in machining and model its relationship to thickness of material removed. To this end, specific energy evaluated in cutting tests was empirically modelled. This work is comprehensive in that it covers a wide range of un-deformed chip thickness as well as three workpiece materials. A new and fundamental understanding of the variation of specific energy with chip thickness is reported for the first time. This can be an evidence base for a generic model for the dependence of specific energy on un-deformed chip thickness. This information is vitally important to raise the integrity of energy labelling of machining processes and as a backbone to process optimisation in order to reduce electrical energy demand and promote manufacturing sustainability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Despite the substantial effort on almost all levels during the last decades, the buildings' renovation rate needs to be at least doubled from the current 1% to meet ambitious energy efficiency goals. In the same way, the energy-intensive material replacement did not reach yet the desired grade in terms of sustainability measures and outlined goals heading to a low-carbon economy. This paper summarizes principles of sustainable development together with the current methodological framework relevant to the civil engineering and construction industry. The main part is devoted to the identification and understanding of principal factors preventing faster adoption of energy efficiency measures. High initial financial costs, investment risk over a long-term period, poor acceptance of sustainable measures, lack of information, and limited methodological framework for a reliable evaluation of environmental projects with the intergeneration context or understanding of externalities of human activities are identified as the main barriers to the sustainable building retrofits. These barriers are closely related each other and can be merged into several groups according to the stakeholders or scientific disciplines to amplify their primary impact. Notwithstanding, solution strategies based on narrow boundary conditions and limited multidisciplinary approach prevent substantial advances towards the sustainable building sector. In this regard, the major obstacles preventing the achievement of energy efficiency goals can be remedied by interdisciplinary cooperation. • Lacking multidisciplinary approach hinders sustainable measures adoption. • Limited public acceptance prevents a stronger political commitment. • Methods of social measures need to be studied for decision support. • Sustainable building industry transition is not a technical issue only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to the increased interest in addressing organisational sustainability issues using behaviour change strategies, this paper aims to propose a methodology for doing so from a different perspective – namely, sociology and social practice theory. Firstly, the background of behaviour change approaches and practice theory are discussed. Then a methodology for conducting a pro-environmental organisational change project is proposed. The methodology involves five key elements: detailed analysis of context, outlining a theoretical framework, establishing project boundaries, acknowledging connectivity of practices and choosing data collection methods. We illustrate the application of methodology by using examples of everyday consumables, energy and waste in a hospital trust in the South East of England. This approach has been effective for analysing routine and inconspicuous consumption within an organisation, as it considers individual attitudes and motivations as well as the structural and habitual nature of communities of practices. It allows researchers and managers to understand workplace consumption issues from several perspectives and identify the best angle from which to approach potential resolutions. • A five-step methodology for an organisational change management project is proposed. • Practice theory helps analyse routine inconspicuous consumption in an organization. • Practice theory helps establish project boundaries and connectivity between practices. • Organisational context and structure can facilitate sustainable workplace consumption. • Energy and waste consumption practices in workplaces rely on habits and routines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Battery demand is estimated to growth at a 25% annual rate, to reach a volume of 2600 GWh in 2030. Recovering critical raw materials from end-of-life batteries is now mandatory to limit the need of primary raw materials in the long-term. However, recycling of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is still in its early stage. Many technologies have been proposed, that consist of a combination of mechanical processing, often after thermal pre-treatment, ended up to hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical processing. All these methods have several pros and cons in terms of applicability, safety, environmental impact, eventual recovery efficiency of the components, and economic factors. In this frame, the evaluation of the sustainability of the proposed technologies plays a fundamental role in selecting the most suitable approaches able to support material supply for batteries, identifying the major solutions to optimize the end-of-life management strategies for LIBs, in the perspective of a circular economy context. However, LCA was developed to evaluate commercially mature technologies. This paper aims to propose and discuss, for the first time, the sustainability of 33 different technologies available in literature for LIBs recovery, even if developed only at laboratory level, by a screening approach, preliminary to LCA analysis. For this purpose, ESCAPE (standing for Evaluation of Sustainability of material substitution using CArbon footPrint by a simplified approach) tool based on the calculation of embodied energy and carbon footprint is used. Based on ESCAPE analysis results, this work shows and discusses the parameters that affect the technologies sustainability (thermal and mechanical treatments and chemicals and water use). The results, in accord with preliminary available LCA data, indicate that chemicals and ultrapure water consumption are the most energy-intensive processes drivers, showing that pyrometallurgy can limit carbon footprint and energy consumption in comparison to hydrometallurgy. Finally, by using the ESCAPE index, it is shown that some technologies may be improved for example by using industrial water instead of ultrapure water and/or by recycling the chemicals used for leaching steps. In summary it is shown that ESCAPE tool can be used in supporting eco-design strategies with the aim to facilitate the understanding of environmental implications of proposed LIBs recovery technologies and to focalize the research toward the more promising ones. [Display omitted] • Sustainability analysis of 33 technologies to recover spent LIBs is proposed. • The processes steps are evaluated in terms of embodied energy and carbon footprint. • LIBs recycling processes should aim for a better water management and leachants recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is widespread concern that the ‘economy is crashing against the Earth’, already causing problems in terms of climate change, water depletion and loss of biodiversity. Yet, the global economy still will have to grow two- to four-fold to provide all future global inhabitants with the average yearly income of $10,000 that is needed to have a reasonable life expectancy and human development index. Rio+20 was intended to reconcile the need for poverty eradication with a green economy, but had limited perceived success. This paper analyses how some of the major international sustainability programs that contributed to Rio+20 could have supported a more far-reaching outcome. Two problems are identified: the programs showed significant overlap, and the programs themselves were often incremental in nature, seeking compromises and avoiding more radical approaches such as the ‘degrowth agenda’. To address the first problem, we suggest how a natural process of mutual collaboration, learning and strengthening could occur: the UN Green Economy Initiative could focus on providing the socio-economic rationale for sustainability; bodies like the IPCC and the UNEP Resources Panel could focus on providing the environmental rationale and planetary limits related to sustainability; programs in the field of sustainable consumption and production as well as resource-efficient and cleaner production could focus on providing hands-on support and proof of how to change direction. There seems no clear-cut answer for the second problem. Some authors suggest relying more on action outside formal policy systems that, by nature, seek compromises. However, they also see a required role for government action, which is exactly what Rio+20 and its supportive policy programs failed to achieve and negotiate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China has now the largest annual outputs of galvanized steel and the most amount of galvanizing plants in the world. However, with obsolete technology, the hot dip galvanizing industry has been proved as one of the industries, which consume large amounts of raw materials and energy, produce numerous pollutants and causes serious contamination in China. Cleaner Production in the hot dip galvanizing industry is now the only way to achieve the sustainable development of hot dip galvanizing industry. The implementation of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) project: The Transfer of Technology and Promotion of demand: Batch hot dip galvanizing in China launched by International Zinc Association (IZA) is introduced in this paper, The Best Available Technologies of operation, energy and environmental management in the world are also introduced. With the implementation of the project, an assessment system of Cleaner Production and a training system have been developed and implementation of technical updating to the demonstration plant shows that the reduction of zinc loss, and water and fuel cost savings can be achieved. It is believed that the methodology of the project can be applied throughout China as the galvanizers see the cost benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Biofuel manufacturing from renewable biomass through a smart manufacturing system is an important alternative to fossil fuels, which helps to decrease dependability on conventional fuel and decrease carbon emanations. By utilizing efficient labors, smart machines, and minimized energy utilization, the conventional biofuel manufacturing framework can be converted into a smart sustainable manufacturing framework. The existing conventional fuel demand can be replaced by biofuel. This study efforts to make pure biofuel with less amount of carbon emanations and energy utilization through a smart multi-type biofuel manufacturing framework, where the demand of the biofuel is selling price dependent. The different energy costs including air handling cost, lighting cost are calculated in this work-in-process inventory. The carbon emissions cost is included in every stage of this model. A variable demand has introduced for the maximization of profit. To reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, a two-stage inspection cost with a variable manufacturing rate is taken to make the manufacturing process flexible such that the amount of impure biofuel is minimized. Although a random manufacturing rate is applied through a smart manufacturing system, still impure biofuel is manufactured. The impure biofuel is remanufactured again through refining just after the well-planned manufacturing ends. In this model, the multi-delivery technique is used such that a fixed amount of biofuel of n segments of the pure biofuel is transported to market places at predetermined intervals at the time of delivery frame. The classical optimization technique is used for continuous and differentiable variables and the mixed integer programming technique is utilized for discrete variables to maximize the total profit globally. To validate the model's usefulness, four numerical observations are studied. It is shown that by utilizing the said procedure, the percentage of impure biofuel can be decreased truly through the minimized energy consumption. The graphical representation and the sensitivity experiment show the impact of every parameter with the whole cost of the research paper. Numerical results assist to get the maximum profit and the optimum selling price of biofuel globally in a sustainable smart multi-type biofuel manufacturing system. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lean manufacturing has already proven to be an effective management philosophy for eliminating waste in production processes, leading to operational gains. However, nowadays, it is not enough just to obtain economic results, with the environmental aspect being a concern that organizations have been incorporating into their production processes due to stakeholder's pressure in order to increase their sustainable performance. As such, a bibliometric and a structured analysis of the literature were carried out focusing on the connection between lean, green and sustainability concepts. The Web of Science platform was used to collect data, encompassing the period from 1900 to 2020. The carried analyses covered the identification of the most relevant papers, including their authors, as well as their temporal and geographical distribution. There was also focus on the draft of a map to observe an underlying intellectual structure through VOSviewer. The novelty of this research is that, through the gathering of relevant data related to the three concepts considered and their analysis, a conceptual model was proposed consisting of lean-green and sustainability (LGS) tools to achieve superior triple bottom line (TBL) performance. This study pinpointed that in most of the cases where LGS tools have been applied (TPM - Total Productive Maintenance - and 6R, e.g.), there was a positive impact mostly on the economic and environmental pillars of the targeted companies. Although there were also a small number of other cases where it was found that an improved efficiency induced an increased consumption of energy and water, namely by lean tools (SMED - Single Minute Exchange of Dies, e.g.), the results demonstrated the capability of lean and green, especially their combination, to enhance sustainability outcomes. Future research should focus on quantifying the effects that LGS tools, in a single way or combined, bring to all TBL pillars, especially the social one, e.g., by developing key performance indicators. The testing of the proposed conceptual model, including its completion, is also encouraged, namely through the evaluation of what is the best combination of LGS tools, considering specific sectors of activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing industries are faced with environmental challenges, so their industrial processes must be optimized in terms of both profitability and sustainability. Since most of these processes are dynamic, the previously obtained solutions cannot be valid after disruptions. This paper focuses on recovery in dynamic job-shop scheduling problems where machines can work at different rates. Machine speed scaling is an alternative framework to the on/off control framework for production scheduling. Thus, given a disruption, the main goal is to recover the original solution by rescheduling the minimum number of tasks. To this end, a new match-up technique is developed to determine the rescheduling zone and a feasible reschedule. Then, a memetic algorithm is proposed for finding a schedule that minimizes the energy consumption within the rescheduling zone but that also maintains the makespan constraint. An extensive study is carried out to analyze the behavior of our algorithms to recover the original solution and minimize the energy reduction in different benchmarks, which are taken from the OR-Library. The energy consumption and processing time of the tasks involved in the rescheduling zone will play an important role in determining the best match-up point and the optimized rescheduling. Upon a disruption, different rescheduling solutions can be obtained, all of which comply with the requirements but that have different values of energy consumption. The results proposed in this paper may be useful for application in real industries for energy-efficient production rescheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to analyse whether the adoption of sustainable energy systems improves corporate financial performance. To this end, we obtained data from a sample of 574 multinational companies from 36 countries in the 2008–2013 period. On this data we implement a dynamic system panel data method. Our findings show that the adoption of sustainable energy systems allows firms to improve their short-term corporate financial performance while not leading them to reduce their corporate financial performance in the long term. Specifically, our results indicate that an increase in energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources do not significantly affect corporate financial performance. Neither does the integration of energy efficiency systems and renewable energy sources have any significant influence on corporate financial performance, while the level of implementation of sustainable energy management systems has a significant effect on short-term, but not long-term, corporate financial performance. Furthermore, other control variables, such as research and development expenditure and year, are also relevant in explaining firms’ financial performance. The adoption of sustainable energy systems helps to improve corporate financial performance in the short-term but has no affect in the long-term. This might be because the monitoring of energy efficiency using key performance indicators allows firms to detect and correct failures in the production process and hence improve short-term financial performance. However, this measure does not generate competitive advantages for firms and therefore has no effect on long-term corporate financial performance. From a scientific perspective of energy, this paper contributes to the literature by providing a detailed explanation of how the adoption of sustainable energy systems proposed by Peura (2013) influences corporate financial performance on the basis of new empirical evidence. These explanations provide a strong rationale for improving the efficient use of energy and harvesting low hanging fruits in the short term from a managerial perspective. Policymakers should encourage firms to align sustainable energy systems with their core business strategy by developing green technologies that allow them to acquire rare and valuable capabilities and abilities, which generate competitive advantage, and therefore allow firms to increase their long-term corporate financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding the domestic bioeconomy can help diversify the use of national resources and reduce emissions. Evaluating the sustainability of a growing bioeconomy, however, is inherently complex since it spans several sectors and supply chains. It requires a comprehensive, integrated analysis framework to assess the developments across the traditional sustainability dimensions. Further, the assessment of bioeconomy developments requires a robust baseline of historic data and trends. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of the biofuel portion of the US bioeconomy, focusing on two fuels that had an exponential growth in the last two decades: corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel. For this purpose, we created a novel time series of harmonized environmentally-extended input-output (EEIO) tables based on a publicly available model from the US Environmental Protection Agency and expanded its disaggregation to reflect the main supply chains of the biofuels sectors. The EEIO time series provides the historical evolution of these biofuels relative to the rest of the economy as well as on an energy-unit basis. We find that, except for energy use, the broader US economy declined in both resource intensity and most environmental impacts when normalized per one million dollars of gross domestic product. Deviating from this trend are freshwater ecotoxicity and human toxicity, mainly attributable to the expansion of commodity crops and the increase of domestic oil and gas extraction respectively. We also find that the biofuel industry's total socioeconomic, resource use and environmental impacts grew with their production increases over time. However, the industry's maturation and scale-up, combined with higher feedstock yields, contributed to a reduction of most impacts on an energy-unit basis over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advance cooling/lubrication (lubricooling) approaches are getting fame in industry and academia due to their excellent performance. A significant amount of work has been conducted to investigate the effect of various lubricooling approaches on the machinability of the hardened steel. However, sustainability-based performance evaluation of lubricooling assisted machining is missing. Thus, this paper presents 3E-based (Energy, Economics, Environment) analysis to compare the performance of various lubricooling approaches. Initially, preliminary experiments were performed to achieve optimal flow rates of various cutting fluids used in Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL), cryogenic cooling, and conventional emulsion (Flood) approaches. Later, optimal flow rates were used to achieve equal cutting-tool life under all machining environments. Results showed that with the same tool life method (STLM), Cryogenic-MQL(CryoMQL) could withstand aggressive cutting speeds and produce the highest productivity among all lubricooling approaches. In addition, it yielded 50% lower-priced specific production cost as compared to dry machining. However, 44.3% more specific-CO 2 emitted in CryoMQL as compared with dry machining. In summary, the hybrid CryoMQL assisted machining process is sustainable economically but not environmentally. The outcomes of the present study provide useful information, and it can help machinist to enhance the process performance. [Display omitted] • Holistic sustainability assessment of hard machining. • New holistic models for energy consumption, CO 2 emission, and cost. • Determining optimal flow rate of cooling/lubrication approaches. • Comparison of energy-conscious advanced lubricooling technologies. • Proposed CryoMQL yielded 50% lower price products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing energy demand and the rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions have increased the necessity of bioenergy and sustainable energy generation. The sustainable bioenergy supply chain is the key to produce sustainable biofuel. This paper points to render an optimization model for planning a versatile and dependable biomass-to-bioenergy sustainable supply chain network in which crop residuals from several agricultural sectors, multi-transportation disruption modes, multi-biorefineries, multi-biogas plants, and multi-market centers are investigated for two bioenergy sources, namely biofuel and biogas. For this reason, supply chain cost optimization, emissions of feedstock transport, processing, and distributing end biofuel to respective markets are utilized. The multi-setup-multi-delivery (MSMD) concept is incorporated and lead time crashing cost is applied to minimize the lead time in this model. The carbon emission costs at all steps and the variable production rate for the production of bioenergy are included within the model. Finally, one small-scale data and another large-scale data of six agricultural areas, four biorefineries, four biogas plants, and six markets are considered to validate the model's usefulness. The model's goal is to show bioenergy's effect to make a sustainable supply chain of biofuel and biogas. The numerical results reveal that the cost of bioenergy production contributed 54.12%, a major extent of the whole cost in biorefinery and biogas plants. The transportation segment is the preeminent initiator of carbon emissions with 83.33% in the entire carbon emission within the whole supply chain. Although, transportation cost contributed 33.09% of the total cost, the multi setup-delivery-multi-delivery policy minimized the whole supply chain cost. The results provide a systematic guideline for developing a sustainable biofuel supply-chain by minimizing cost, various aspects of transportation logistics, and multi-model alternatives under reduced energy effects. • Energy demand and two approaches of biofuel and biogas production are evaluated. • Reduction of the supply chain network's total cost. • Optimizing allocation of the appropriate quantity of residual biomass and biofuel. • Reducing energy consumption by using variable production rate. • An intelligent logistics system with multi-disruption is addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stamping industry is critical in the automotive and aerospace industries, and the environmental impacts and sustainability of stamping systems have attracted considerable attention. To analyze the environmental impact and sustainability of stamping systems quantitatively, this paper presents an emergy-based evaluation method considering all the associated environmental impact factors of a pressing workshop including material and energy consumption, waste flows, time and mass losses, and processing costs. On the basis of analyzing the stamping processes and sustainability, this method comprises data collection, emergy based sustainability evaluation model and the development of sustainable evaluation indexes and systems. Based on the proposed method, the environmental impact of an industrial vehicle stamping workshop was evaluated. The results show that the net emergy yield ratio of the stamping system was greater than 2, and the waste emergy output ratio was very low, indicating that the system had high productivity levels, high yields, and low pollution discharge rates. However, its sustainability index was less than one owing to its high energy and material consumption during the production processes. To reduce the environmental impact of this stamping system and improve its sustainability, we investigated the potential improvements that could be achieved in energy consumption, productivity, and environmental impact by implementing energy-saving scheduling in the stamping workshop. The results show that the corresponding net emergy yield ratio and sustainability index of the system were both improved. The proposed emergy-based method could be used to quantitatively evaluate the environmental impacts and sustainability of stamping systems and facilitate efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of pressing workshops while improving their productivity and economic profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of sustainability and resilience has not been sufficiently addressed in the supply chain literature. Applying sustainability and resilience concepts into a supply chain means the simultaneous optimization of the cost and recourses, including human and environmental ones, for facing possible risks. Thus, the primary motivation of this paper is to consider sustainability and resilience in a closed-loop supply chain simultaneously. For this purpose, the specialists and academics were asked to identify the impacts of supply chain's strategies on the resilience criteria in linguistic variables. Then, the resulting matrix was solved using fuzzy TOPSIS, and the information sharing and multiple sourcing were selected as the first and second strategies. Accordingly, a new multi-objective mixed-integer programming model was formulated for a closed-loop supply chain. In this research, different dimensions of sustainability have been taken into account through reducing the total cost, energy consumption, and pollution and increasing job opportunities. Information sharing and multiple sourcing strategies have been employed in model development for making supply chain more resilient. The real data of a tire industry was used for validating the proposed model, and the model was solved using the improved version of the augmented ε-constraint (AUGMECON2) method. The results emphasized the necessity of combining sustainability and resilience in the closed-loop supply chain. • Applying sustainability and resilience simultaneously to a closed-loop supply chain. • Investigating the role of multiple sourcing and information sharing. • Ways to make a supply chain network resilient. • Solving proposed model using the improved version of the augmented ε-Constraint solution technique. • Applying the proposed model to the case of the tire industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The methods to collect and transport various types of medical waste are vital to the management of healthcare waste. The lack of a safe plan for the timely collection and transportation of such wastes may have an undesirable impact on the environment and public health. The present research addresses a real-life healthcare waste collection vehicle routing problem (HWCVRP) for small medical centers in Iran that produce minor amounts of waste and lack on-site facilities to treat wastes of various kinds. This problem involves social, environmental, and economic objective functions, aiming to achieve sustainable development. The social objective function is optimized based on a novel definition of risk in medical waste collection and designed to reduce public health risk by minimizing the time of waste collection from centers that produce a larger volume of more hazardous waste. Furthermore, the present paper provides a comprehensive estimate of fuel consumption in vehicles to be accurately minimized to diminish the environmental hazards involved in sustainable transportation. Also, the economic objective function is set to minimize the variable and fixed costs of transportation. A self-adaptive multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is generated with numerous effective operators to solve the model. Specific metrics are employed to compare the performance of the proposed meta-heuristic algorithm with those of multiple other evolutionary algorithms. The results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed method in reaching high-quality non-dominated solutions. Ultimately, a real-life case study is used to implement the proposed approach and to evaluate its performance. Image 1 • A real perspective to the triple bottom line of health-care waste collection. • A new social aspect of sustainability based on the risk of different medical waste. • A new multi-objective self-adaptive evolutionary algorithm (MOSAEA). • The results show that MOSAEA dominates recently competitive approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dielectric medium (kerosene) between the tool electrode and workpiece forms a reaction product, owing to thermal effect of discharge in the process of electrical discharge machining (EDM), which is emitted from the surface in the form of harmful gas and may get into the operator's body by breath system inhalation and contact with skin. Therefore, exhaust emissions should be considered as important performance indicators for the green machining in the process of EDM. Moreover, energy efficiency and machining productivity should be improved and the cut process must take ecological constraints into consideration. Thereafter, the definition of green manufacturing helps to evaluate different and sometimes conflicting aspects of the manufacturing process, such as machining productivity, surface quality, energy efficiency and exhaust emissions. But it is difficult to dynamically adjust the weights of different aspects according to the actual processing conditions. This paper proposes a framework for optimization of cutting parameters to minimize energy consumption and exhaust emissions during electrical discharge machining of Al 6061 and SKD 11. Three cutting process parameters (peak current, pulse period, and duty cycle) are tested against material remove rate (MRR), surface roughness (Ra), energy efficiency per volume (EEV), and exhaust emissions characteristics (EEC) for EDM of these two materials. First, the process energy and exhaust emissions are analyzed. The results show that EEV is negatively correlated with surface quality (Ra) for both Al 6061 and SKD 11 material. Second, two data analyses (Taguchi and adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) analyses) are utilized to obtain high MRR and best Ra, EEV and EEC for the desired machining performances and environmental sustainability. It is found that the relative errors between the predicted values and experimental results of MRR, Ra, EEV and EEC are all not more than 20%, and found that the maximum of mean relative errors of them is 13.04%. Finally, a framework implemented by an optimization system, based on ANFIS, enhanced cuckoo search (ECS) algorithm and desirability function, is built to obtain the desired cutting parameters. It is found that high peak current (8.94A) and pulse period (500 μ s) are recommended to obtain multi-objective optimization for machining Al 6061, and that the optimal solutions of the EEV and EEC are significantly decreased, by 87.13% and 37.09%, respectively. Similarly, high peak current (8.77A) and pulse period (261.5 μ s) are recommended to obtain multi-objective optimization for machining SKD 11, and the optimal solutions of the EEV and EEC are significantly decreased, by 93.73% and 46.85%, respectively. Thereafter, it can be concluded from the above research that the proposed technique offers significant advantages and potential for applications in the green manufacturing field. Image 1 • Energy efficiency per volume was negatively correlated with Ra. • Maximizing energy efficiency and minimizing exhaust emissions by empirical models were obtained. • Balancing the machining performances and environmental sustainability was considered. • An optimization system with manual multi-objective weights was build. • Green regions of exhaust-friendly and energy-friendly were acquired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption can be significantly reduced by targeting consumers behaviour to achieve sustained energy savings and promote sustainable consumption patterns. In this context, the younger generations are a privileged target group to promote virtuous energy behaviours in the whole community. This paper describes the Schools4energy initiative, a program developed within the Interreg MED PrioritEE project, aimed at increasing energy efficiency in municipal public buildings by raising energy awareness in public schools while demonstrating the effectiveness of pupils' engagement to promote energy savings through virtuous behaviours. Schools4energy was based on a multifold "learning by doing" methodology implemented in the Living Lab of the Potenza case study. During the 2018/2019 school year, children aged between 3 and 14 belonging to four primary and middle schools owned by the Municipality of Potenza (Southern Italy) were involved in three sets of activities designed to valorise the power of young generation in promoting more conscious behaviours: a competition among schools to reduce energy consumption (School Race) based on the adoption of good energy practices based on a common Energy Charter, an artistic competition among students to support creative thinking (Art4energy) and gamification as an alternative method to learn about energy (Play4energy). The consumptions of natural gas and electricity were monitored from August 2018 to April 2019 to highlight the effects of the adoption of Energy Charter in terms of energy and money saved. Data analysis highlighted different trends among the participating schools, underlining their different commitment and the infrastructural barriers. Despite the harsher winter, an average decrease of 4% in natural gas consumption was observed in the school in which energy saving measures complemented technical interventions and a limited increase in electricity consumption (between 0.5% and 4.3% per capita), which led to savings on the energy bill of about 1122 Euro. The enthusiastic participation of the children highlighted the great potential of educational programmes in driving a steady change of mentality in the society. Image 1 • A Living Lab was developed to boost energy saving in public schools. • A "learning by doing" method to raise energy awareness was implemented. • School competition encourages all schools' occupants to save energy. • Virtuous energy behaviours are learned at school and brought back to homes. • The best result is a 4% reduction of gas and a slight increase in electricity (0.5%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to high consumption of energy, its associated concerns such as energy security and demand, wastage of resources, and material-energy recovery are leading to the importance of sustainable energy system development. This is a high time to assess the sustainability in energy systems for meeting the requirements of energy with an enhanced economic, ecological, and social performance from a nation context. The energy system plays a significant role in deciding the economic progress of emerging economies such as India, China, Brazil, and Africa. In this paper, an original attempt has been made to list and evaluate important indicators for sustainability assessment of energy systems development and management in an emerging economy especially India. Firstly, based on the analysis of the extant literature and then followed by expert opinion, potential key sustainability assessment indicators for energy systems development and management were identified. Further, grey based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique to understand the causal interactions amongst indicators and segregate them into cause and effect groups, is used. This work can provide useful aids to decision making bodies, sustainability practitioners and business organisations in selective implementation, monitoring and control of sustainable strategies in energy systems development and management and meeting sustainable development goals of clean energy in a nation context. Image 1 • Clean energy is a major challenge for sustainable development. • The energy system contributes to a significant extent to a nation economy. • This work evaluated the indicators for sustainability of energy systems in an emerging economy. • Grey-DEMATEL is applied to understand the causal interactions amongst indicators. • 'Adoption of energy management systems (ISO 50001:2011) and 'Developing system capabilities' are significant indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy, economic and environmental performance of remanufacturing process are complex and diverse. In order to improve the comprehensive benefits, a sustainability evaluation method for multi-objective remanufacturing system synthesis based on energy, economy and environment is proposed in this paper. Starting from the remanufacturing process, the prediction model of each evaluation index is established and verified, and the technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) based on entropy weight is used for analysis and calculation. The established quantitative prediction model is of high accuracy and innovative and practical application value. The example analysis shows that this method can be successfully applied to the remanufacturing of lathe spindle, and the optimal remanufacturing scheme with comprehensive energy, economic and environmental benefits is selected. This study is not only conducive to enterprises to obtain greater comprehensive benefits of remanufacturing, but also can provide a reference for the government to formulate more perfect laws and policies. Image 10109 • Evaluation of remanufacturing sustainability considering energy, economic and environmental benefits. • The analysis and calculation models of energy consumption, cost and carbon emissions are established. • Using TOPSIS based on entropy weight to make comprehensive decision, eliminating the interference of human factors. • It is of positive significance for the development of enterprises and the formulation of government policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a typical sustainable product-service system, the aero-engine overhaul service aims to recover the functionality to fulfil certain flight hours and thrust requirements. How to configure the overhaul service with various sub-services is a key issue in industry. In this paper, a use-oriented aero-engine overhaul service configuration approach is proposed with two methods: overhaul service configuration and part repair service configuration. The overhaul service configuration method decomposes the overhaul service into various sub-services and creates a hierarchical service tree model, taking the cost and energy consumption into consideration. Based on the sub-service filtering and selection rule, the bill of exchange service comes with the bill of discard service. The part repair service configuration method matches each part repair procedure service with a proper service provider. Some non-dominated bills of repair services are obtained by minimizing the repair service cost, finishing time deviation and energy consumption. Considering the multi-objective character of the overhaul service configuration problem, these two methods result in some Pareto solutions to fulfil the service requirements. Through implementing the approach as a prototype, a case study is shown to illustrate the use-oriented aero-engine overhaul service configuration approach and verify its feasibility. A bridge between the flight hours and thrust requirements and the overhaul service configuration results is built when the cost and energy consumption are minimized. The study contributes to the shift of aero-engine overhaul services from the add-on services to sustainable use-oriented product-service systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]